US Census gets really personal

Soon the American Community Survey from the US Census Bureau will be in your mailbox. If you’re not sure what that means (since the government loves to rename simple items) it’s the government’s new brilliant title for a census.

“We estimate that for the average household, this form will take 38 minutes to complete,” is what the back of the form indicates to the reader.

So wait, hold on. It could take over half an hour to write how many people live in your house? I have a feeling this isn’t what Jefferson or Madison had in mind.

Yes, this year there is an array of intrusion on personal information. Each member of a household might have a possible 48 questions to fill out. My favorites are as follows:

1. Does your home have running water? A flush toilet? A sink with a faucet?

2. How many cars do you own?

3. What level of education do you have?

4. Do you have difficulty hearing or seeing? Trouble climbing up the stairs?

5. How did you get to work (by bus, car, trolley, and other possibilities)?

6. What time do you leave for work? Include the exact hour and minute.

By the way, there’s no comment box to write, “Why do you need to know all of this?”

4 Responses

Maybe the government hopes to make a few bucks selling the information to marketers! Actually, some of the questions could be helpful. For example, if a geographical area has a high concentration of high school drop outs as indicated by the response to one’s level of education, then the government might allocate more money for education in that area.

Today is the day the census is due and you may have been a bit ahead of the curve here. Judge Andrew Napolitano appears to agree with you that the “American Community Survey” is unconstitutional; not what the original need to count heads (representation) is but rather a growing appetite of the federal gov’t for more information about you. Additionally, if arrested by FBI(as a criminal) you’d have the right to “remain silent”, but federal gov’t “requires” you to answer these personal questions — not just how many people live in your home.

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